Behind Blue Eyes
by shan14
Summary: Everyone needs a Superhero
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This gets a tad confusing, but all shall be explained at the end.

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone, thing or object. random or otherwise.

---

"Natalie when was the last time you slept?" asked Stephen Connor, eyeing the weary pathologist skeptically. She waved a hand in annoyance, shaking her head as her gaze fell to the floor below.

"48 hours? Have you even eaten? Nat you're running on empty and doing no one any good. Go home, get some sleep and don't come back until you can look me clearly in the eyes with out yawning. Kay?" Asked the doctor, the question clearly an order as the blonde haired woman nodded, avoiding his gaze by closing her eyes.

"Nat?" he pressed further, wondering just how far he could push before she snapped. He laid a hand against her shoulder briefly, feeling her muscles tense before she spun on her heels, stalking out the lab door without a word.

---

Elton John played dully in the background as Natalie wandered the halls of the hospital.

_Tiny Dancer _she laughed bitterly, remembering her mother singing sweetly to her as a young child. She'd never liked dancing but her mother had tried nevertheless.

In compensation she'd learnt the piano and played her mothers favourite song for her birthday, enlisting her father to sing as the trio danced throughout the afternoon.

She'd died six months later.

---

"Pretty eyes, Pirate smile" laughed a voice down the hallway, singing along to the music with child like innocence, seemingly oblivious to the death and destruction surrounding her.

Curious as to the source of the voice Natalie followed, realising as she inched closer that it was in fact a child singing; a little blonde girl of maybe 8 year's age, sitting up in bed, and brushing her dolls hair back gently.

"Hello" she smiled, gazing up at Natalie "Who are you?"

Natalie bit back a smile at the young child's eagerness, stepping inside the deserted room and waking towards the end of the bed.

"My names Natalie, what's yours?" she asked, wondering why such a young child had been left by herself.

Natalie bit back a gasp as the girl turned her eyes towards her, the startling blue gaze erringly familiar.

"Therese"

---


	2. Chapter 2

Natalie stared at the little girl a moment longer, willing her mind not to compare the child to the owner of the crystal pools she saw each day.

"Therese" she murmured, testing the name out loud to assure herself she had heard correctly.

"Are you a doctor Natalie?" asked Therese suddenly, crinkling her forehead in question.

Natalie nodded weakly, wandering towards the child's bedside and placing a hand on the chair nearby.

"My brothers a doctor" stated Therese proudly, smiling at Natalie before gesturing for her to sit down. She gladly obliged, pulling the chair a little closer to see the little girl better.

"He's very busy. He saves lots and lots of people you know" mentioned the child a moment later, still caught up in her thoughts where as Natalie's had raced miles ahead, trying to assure herself that coincidences did exist and this was one of them.

---

"Do you save lots of people Natalie?" came the little voice moments later, the bluntness of the question startling the doctor.

"I try to" she murmured, nodding to convince herself of the words she was saying.

"Sometimes I'm not so sure" she admitted finally, surprised at the ease in which this news was accepted by the child. She nodded her little head in agreement, not a hint of the anger, grief or pain that Natalie had seen countless times in the faces of her patients and their relatives. Even the ones that did survive had their moments of doubt, a split second where they realised their doctors weren't superheros and couldn't perform miracles.

Natalie was still coming to terms with it herself. For so long she had accepted that not everyone would survive, but the ones that did outweighed the others.

Lately she had been struggling to believe even that.

She felt a warm presence over her hand and looked to see Therese's tiny one covering her own, patting it gently to comfort the struggling adult.

"At least you try" stated Therese innocently, her 8 year old smile threatening to convince Natalie of its truth.

---

"I used to tell my brother stories when we were little" laughed Therese gently, her odd choice of words sounding every bit the adult Natalie supposed she would grow to be.

"He loved superheros and made me play with him" she continued, surprising Natalie as the child settled down into her story.

"One day I wasn't in a very good mood and my brother was yelling at me to come downstairs quickly. I thought something was wrong but when I learnt he just wanted to play I yelled at him, stamping my feet the whole time"

Therese giggled at the memory, blue eyes dancing lightly.

"What happened afterwards?" asked Natalie, gently prising the child from her reminiscence.

"I told him he wasn't a superhero and he never would be" sighed Therese regretfully, her child like face contorting into a pained expression, the grief in her gaze that of an adult who had seen too much of the world.

"And?" pressed Natalie once more, trying to ignore the resemblance that gaze held with her own blue eyed companion.

"He never played superheros again" stated Therese sadly. She ducked her head so that Natalie couldn't see the tears in her eyes, only the smile she put on as she lifted her head once more.

"I wish I hadn't though" she sighed "You know why Natalie?" she asked, her voice back to the 8 year old questioning it held before.

"Why hunny?" encouraged the doctor.

"Cause he really is a superhero. Him and all his friends. They save the world each day and they don't even realise"


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Not really sure if i like this ending or not...

Natalie blinked slowly, the orange glow behind her eyelids glaring harshly as she lifted her head from the pillow. Her gaze was drawn swiftly to the bed across from her, the neatly folded regulation sheets confusing her as she lifted herself into a sitting position.

"Therese?" she called softly, wondering if the child had been a figment of her imagination or not. Usually she would have trusted her instinct, in which case Therese was very real, but surely the child wouldn't have been moved with out her hearing?

And that face, so close to that of the blonde haired doctor she knew so well…

Natalie had never believed in ghosts, but she could find no other explanation for what Therese had told her. The little girl had sounded wise beyond her years; spoke as the forty something year old woman that she would have been today if her life had not been cut short as a teenager.

"No" whispered Natalie, blinking again as the light from the hallway was interrupted by a shadow.  
"Thought Connor told you to go home?" asked Frank casually, looking up from the files he was carrying to the slightly sleep tousled woman before him.

"Did you decide the drive home was to long?" he teased further, realising Natalie wasn't going to answer.

"Something like that" she smiled faintly, glancing round the room once more. Her thoughts swirled conspiratorially around her head, binging the realisation that her twenty minute nap had done nothing to lift the exhaustion from earlier.

"Go home Nat" advised Frank wisely before turning on his heel, walking away from the hospital ward.

"Frank" called Natalie, catching the mans attention once more "Are there any patients in this ward?" she asked, feigning nonchalance.

"Don't think so" he replied, glancing down at the files he was holding as if they held the answer. He raised an eyebrow as Natalie's brow crinkled in confusion. Gaining no answer he slowly walked out of the room once more, turning in the hallway to glance back at his friend before leaving her to her thoughts.

"She wasn't here" whispered Natalie slowly; wondering if saying the words aloud would help clarify the facts. "It was all a dream, my imagination over working itself after a long day"

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, letting her bare feet fall to the cool flooring below. The bed next to her looked as crisp as it had when she had woken, no signs of recent life presenting itself even after further inspection.

"Therese?" she called out softly, turning around slowly to take in the whole room.

Somewhere in the distance she could have sworn she had heard giggling.

"So the evil witch turned towards the super princess as she brought out her magical wand"

The three Adam's girls each let out a surprised gasp.

"Keep going Dr. McCabe" squealed the youngest; tugging at the young mans sleeves.  
"Please, pretty, pretty please" requested the other two brow haired children.

Miles shared a smile with Eva, sitting next to him as the three girls bounced playfully on the hospital beds, all signs of their earlier illness fading quickly as Miles delighted them with a special story, much to the amusement of his colleagues.

Through the glass pane dividing their room from the corridor Natalie watched silently, a small smile gracing her lips as her mind wandered aimlessly through the past and present.

"Thought it told you to get some sleep" came a voice from behind, the light teasing causing her to smile further.

"I did" she answered simply, laughing as the girls attached themselves to Miles arms in anticipation.

"Miles delighting our young patients" nodded Stephen, keeping his eyes on the woman before him. He stepped a little closer as she tipped her head to the side, sighing gently before turning to face him at last.

"He worked himself to the bone on this case" she stated, remembering the young mans determination to ensure the three sisters pulled through unharmed.

"Yeah" nodded Stephen in agreement. He watched her for a moment, slightly unsettled by Natalie's seemingly serene face after her earlier mini meltdown.

He'd expected yelling, maybe even the cold shoulder or at least the tired look of annoyance that he hated to cause on her usually smiling face. Instead Natalie had returned calmer than he had seen her in weeks.

And it was beginning to itch at him greatly.

"You okay Nat?" he asked, mirroring his line of questions from earlier that day.

"Eva did as well" continued the doctor, unperturbed by his inquiry "I think she was ready to bite the head off just about any one who dared try and get in the way of her and Frank's investigation"

She smiled at the thought of her two friends, wrapping her arms around herself as Stephen's intense gaze bore down on her from above.

"It must have been hard on Frank, seeing the girls so close to dying. Did you know Elise goes to school with his eldest?"

"No" murmured Stephen, wondering if Natalie's little spiel was going to end soon.

"Nat you didn't answer my question" he pressed further. She looked up at him, rather startled by the question, blinking twice before her brow crinkled once more in concentration.

"I asked if you were okay Nat" Stephen reminded gently, laying a hand on her shoulder and stepping closer once more.

"I'm fine Stephen" she smiled "Really, just a little drained but nothing I can't handle"

He watched her a moment longer, seemingly satisfied with the familiar expressions washing across her face. Squeezing her shoulder tighter, he brought her in for a hug, holding her to his chest for a minute to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Maybe we need to stop thinking about the ones we lose" she whispered slowly, gripping onto the front of his black t-shirt with her delicate hands.

"Maybe if we start remembering that we are making a difference it will get better?" she continued the statement more of a question directed at him.

"I think you might be right Nat" he murmured, releasing her gently to look her in the eye "I think we need to remember that we're saving the world each case"

She smiled, the light finally reaching her eyes for the first time in days.

"One person at a time" she laughed.

"One person at a time" he grinned.

_Two months later_

Stephen walked slowly down the corridors of the NIH, wondering when the next call from Kate would come in and the team would have to rush off again.

"One person at a time" he reminded himself with a smile.

He glanced into his office for a moment, eyeing the desk for any sign of change since he had made his last round. Not expecting anything he was quite surprised to see a small frame sitting up in the middle of his desk, a note attached to the top right corner.

Striding across the room, while wondering who on earth was at work at such a time, he swivelled the frame around, gasping slightly as he looked down at the worn photo in wonder.

Two children, a white-blonde haired four year old and a honey blonde haired 8 year old stood in their front yard. It was Halloween and their bright faces held all the hopes and dreams of the candy filled night to come.

He remembered that day so vividly, the lights and the colours. Even the stomach ache the next morning could be felt in full detail, he noted with a grin.

Therese had gone as Alice in Wonderland, her bright blue dress and ribbon shinning against the darker blues of her little brothers superman outfit.

Stephen picked at the note absently, before letting his eyes sweep over the message, the simple words bringing a grin to his face at the thought of its composer.

_Someone once told me you'd always dreamed of being a superhero. _

_Just thought I'd reminded you that you always have been._

_Don't ever forget it Superman_

_Nat_


End file.
